NAME

readlink − read value of a symbolic link

SYNOPSIS

cc = readlink(path, buf, bufsiz)
int cc;
char ∗path, ∗buf;
int bufsiz;

DESCRIPTION

Readlink places the contents of the symbolic link name in the buffer buf which has size bufsiz. The contents of the link are not null terminated when returned.

RETURN VALUE

The call returns the count of characters placed in the buffer if it succeeds, or a −1 if an error occurs, placing the error code in the global variable errno. 

ERRORS

Readlink will fail if:

[EPERM] The path argument contained a byte with the high-order bit set. 

[ENOENT] The pathname was too long. 

[ENOTDIR] A component of the path prefix is not a directory. 

[ENOENT] The named file does not exist. 

[ENXIO] The named file is not a symbolic link. 

[EACCES] Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix. 

[EPERM] The effective user ID does not match the owner of the file and the effective user ID is not the super-user. 

[EINVAL] The named file is not a symbolic link. 

[EFAULT] Buf extends outside the process’s allocated address space. 

[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. 

[EIO] An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. 

SEE ALSO

csymlink(2), lstat(2), readclink(2), stat(2) symlink(2)

4BSD